Check please

Between wages, amazon sales, and selling my washer, i made just under $600 today. And the night is still young.

Mooses loose

Mooses loose
Originally uploaded by cena76.

We arrived at the Anchorage airport today to the sound of firecrackers and police sirens. The one thing i had wanted to see while up there had finally made an appearance, and the cops were trying to shoo it off the road. God i love Alaska.

For once, SAR doesn't mean Sitting Around Rapping

This morning i participated in a mock search, my first real Search and Rescue drill. It has been dumping snow for the last few days, and last night it turned to rainy snow - we couldn't have asked for crappier conditions to go out tramping in the woods in. Ok, maybe blowing hard and hailing, but it was pretty bad. We all showed up at the fire hall at 10am, to be given a fake scenario in which a couple of teenage boys had left Sandy Beach Park for a hike to City Creek, where they planned on taking the road back to town. They were an hour overdue, and the police station had received calls from other walkers that there was a bear and cub in the City Creek area. The police dog Amigo and his trainer were involved, they got to go out first on the search so that all of our scents would not throw him off. While they were gone, we discussed how she had given him the order "Lieben!" He has been taught most commands in german, assuming that the majority of "bad guys" he goes after will not speak it, therefore he will not slow down when told to stop or heel. The two boys who volunteered to "get lost" were found quite quickly by Amigo, but in the event that a bear was involved in a real search, he would not have been utilized. Too risky for him and his trainer, as he has no training with other animals.

It was exciting, gearing up and heading out. Karen took the radio and i took the pad and pencil to keep track of people and clues. We set off on our mission, as three separate teams. The team who was assigned to start from the City Creek entrance found the boys after about 15 minutes, even though they were given a note at the fire hall that they were to open when they got to their starting point. It said that the bear was "on the bridge," which meant that they would have to determine the best way to deal with that scenario. The guys thought the note meant the bear was on the road bridge, so they arrogantly walked past it onto the trail, where there was a bridge that the bear was supposed to be on. It was meant to slow them down, as the coordinator didnt have the boys too far off the path because of the nasty weather. My team got the call on the handheld radio that team two had found them, and that one boy had suffered a biten hand, and the other had his lef trampled on by the bear and would need medical attention. It was at this point that the police dispatcher called in on our frequency, inquiring if this was a drill or if we really needed the EMT's. Seems someone had forgotten to inform the police station about our drill. There was radio silence for about 10 seconds, until Karen finally got the guts to speak up. All in all, i think it was informative and productive, we were able to debrief and discuss problems, questions, and future concerns. I joined this department in May, and have done nothing but attend meetings and sit around a table talking. It was really neat to do something physical and learn more about what SAR is and its purpose. Of course, i hope i rarely (if never) have to utilize what i've learned, but in the event that a search is commenced, i will be proud to be a part of it.

Meat market

Zieak and i are in Portland, Oregon while i attend a gift show with one of my coworkers. He gets to be the tag-along this time. Rory moved down here last april, and my father and his wife live in southern oregon, so we had plenty of distractions.
Saturday my dad, donna, zieak and i visited the japanese gardens. It was quite serene, and absolutely eye-pleasing. We had talked about going to the zoo instead, so i'm glad we went with the garden - there were no screaming children.

Portland seems like a cool town, but we only had four nights to form an opinion. Rory took us out on the town saturday night, and boy, did i form a strong opinion. Lets just say i came up with a NOT To Do list for the newly-of-drinking-age female population of portland. (*this is my opinion only - not to be taken seriously)

- Most of the girls looked like they had spent at least two hours putting on layer after layer of makeup and coat after coat of hairspray. Less is more girls.

- Muffintops were abound.

- If you're going to wear black tights with a pink miniskirt, go right ahead. You'll probably look really cute. Just don't let the top of the tights protrude above the waist of the skirt. Not cute.

- If you MUST make out with your best friend, don't bother rushing into an out of order bathroom stall made of see-through material. I understand not wanting to do it on the dancefloor in front of a crowd of drooling jocks, but you're not invisible in that stall, and you're just tracking around more of the disgusting toilet overflow.

- When there is a shy girl handing out paper towels and keeping the ladies room in an acceptable condition (*different bar) don't ignore her and exclaim "oh my GOD, all this stuff is FREE to use?" and proceed to stink up the small space and leave without tipping.

Am i just getting grumpy in my old-age? I did manage to have a lot of fun that night, ending up at a salsa bar where zieak and i received brief drunk salsa lessons from rory's brother and his girlfriend. I wish we had more than four nights, there is so much more to see and do.